Abstract

An alternative concept for accelerating thin foils to high velocity has been proposed and tested. The thin Al foil has been accelerated by the ablative plasma generated by means of the third harmonic (, ) of the iodine laser pulse of the energies of 75 and 190 J irradiating a massive Cu target. Two separation distances of the foil from the massive target of 100 and were used. It has been shown that this method of an indirect, two-step acceleration, named as the reversed acceleration scheme, can be more effective than the classic, direct-drive approach. The Al flyer foil has reached a velocity of , i.e., significantly higher than that in the comparable “classic” ablative accelerationexperiment.

Received 30 May 2008Accepted 19 August 2008Published online 08 September 2008

Acknowledgments:

This work was supported in part by the Ministry of Schools, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (Project No. LC528) and by the Access to Research Infrastructures Activity in the 6FP of the EU (Contract No. RII3-CT-2003-506350, Laserlab Europe), as well as the IPPLM contribution to the HiPER project.